Collaboration

http://www.mikeandpeter.com/

I found this website to be interesting. It is a website representing Mike Carey who worked on the story and Peter Gross who worked on the artwork for The Unwritten. There is biographical information on both and there is also articles and podcasts that can be listened to. I have always found it interesting to look at the writer of books and whatnot as to see how they act and how they are influenced. It is also cool to see two people come together to collaborate on a project such as this.

Weekly Roundup: Swallow Me Whole, Asterios Polyp

While reading both Asterios Polyp and Swallow Me Whole I found myself constantly drawn to the way the authors incorporated much ambiguity within their stories. This left the reader constantly wondering what the true hidden meaning behind the piece was. This led to much discussion on both pieces of work as there were many questions to and thoughts to what these hidden meanings could be. I was interested at how we looked at how in Swallow Me Whole we couldn’t exactly tell if we were in real life or if the visions were schizophrenic episodes. I constantly wondered these things while I was reading through the novel and love the fact that I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it. This will allow me to enjoy the graphic novel many more times as I attempt to find the meaning of the piece. The same can be said of Asterios Polyp. We also looked at the used of empty space in Asterios Polyp. This was incorporated into the overall meaning of the piece which allowed us to look at negative space and reference that to Gods’ Man. I liked how off the wall the story was and wasn’t the same as graphic novels like We3 or The Dark Knight Returns. I really enjoyed getting to look at the graphic novels and see what other people thought the hidden meanings were within these pieces. I really enjoy ambiguity as it keeps a story fresh for many reads to come.

Exit Wounds, A Love Story, A Wild Goose Chase

The first thing I was drawn to when I picked this graphic novel up was the artwork. I really appreciated the style. It was simple but was able to show the action of the novel. I like the cover because of Numi’s hair and how it looks just like it was blowing in the wind. I also appreciated the subtle references to the political and social issues of the country. The way the story flowed was very interesting to me. You were suddenly immersed into the life of Koby and are taken on an adventure as he assists Numi in finding his father with whom he had become distant. I like how the story was lifelike and how the emotions shown by the characters were believable although I can’t understand someone being so hateful towards their dad. I wish I had known more of a back story but at the same time it wasn’t needed.

One problem I had with the story was the fact that it seemed jumpy at times. The scenes would jump around making the story feel less linear to me at least. I do think it felt like a movie but at times I had a hard time moving from picture to picture. I also had a hard time with Koby’s character. One moment he was fine and the next minute he was acting like a teenage girl. I don’t know if that was on purpose or not but it bothered me as I read the story. I also wondered how such a wild goose chase started as it never seemed Numi had much evidence at all but that was mentioned in the story. I enjoyed Exit Wounds but think it could have flowed better.

Putting across a story.

http://sunsite.utk.edu/witness/artists/spiegelman/

This article explains a little of the history behind the making of Maus. It tells why he wanted to write it and goes a little into why he wrote it the way he wrote it. What I found interesting was how it mentions that many Holocaust survivors found Maus to be a terrible representation of the Holocaust. The way the Jews were compared to mice and Nazis to cats seemed a lot like the Nazi propoganda movie we watched in class “The Eternal Jew” (“Der Ewige Jude”).

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

This is my first experience with Batman outside of major cinema (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) and cartoons. The first thing I noticed off the bad was how distracted I felt as I read The Dark Knight Returns. I either found myself flying through the pictures or getting so distracted by the words that I didn’t notice the pictures. This being said I had to keep going back  so that I could understand what exactly was going on. I also found that there was a lot more action in this as opposed to Gods’ Man. There were also many more pictures on each page. There was also much less gutter space between images. This being said I had to use more imagination in Gods’ man than in this because I felt a lot more was given. For this reason the story was more straight forward and easy to understand.

One thing I thought was interesting and confusing at one time was how the novel would jump back and forth between action sequences with Batman and what was going on with the news and the public. Though I had to go back a few times I think this added a nice touch to the story. It allows a duel story where you see things through both the public’s eyes and through batman’s eyes. The way some were for batman and other were not really fascinated me. What did this do for everyone else? Did everyone enjoy this aspect of the book or did it confused them? Was this easier to read than Gods’ Man? If you are new to Batman in graphic novels like I am did this live up to what you know about Batman?